can be inferred from physical
geography, is an immense depressed plain more hopelessly barren and
uninhabitable than the great desert of Sahara."

These authorities say more on this imaginary desert, but the quotation
is sufficient to show that even scientists do not know everything,
although one might believe that they did.

I have not learnt that either Messrs. Landsborough or Phillips, who were
on the Diamantina in 1866, and crossed from that river over to the
Flinders, commented on the quality of the country through which they
travelled, and I can only explain that its naturally waterless state up
to early in the eighties prevented its value becoming known.

During these years immense sums of money were spent in water
conservations by the Government of the day and Victorian investors, and
in a large measure without meeting success.

When I went to Townsville in 1868, the principal, and also the first
carrier there, was a man named Courtney, who owned eight bullock teams.
He had been taking stores to the different stations on the Flinders as
that country was opened up. In conversation one day, he informed me that
some two or three years previously his bullocks had strayed many miles
across the downs from Richmond Downs. Seeing the beautiful sheep country
still extending to the south, he determined to explore it to learn if
there were any good water courses. Taking a pack horse with rations, he
started on a S.W. course until he found a large river running in a
southerly direction. A few miles further north the river runs from west
to east. He marked a tree with his initial C., and this was found long
afterwards to be on a water-hole between Kynuna and Dagworth. He
expected to realise money on his exploration, but the Diamantina country
was, as I have previously remarked, occupied by people coming from the
Central district. The route from Townsville through long stretches of
dry country was out of the running.

In after years Courtney took to drink. Finally, after one of his bouts,
on leaving Normanton in an intoxicated condition, he camped at a
water-hole 10 miles out. His clothes were found, but not the body. It
was supposed that he had gone in for a swim, and that alligators, which
swarm in these holes, had taken him. I could not learn if he had given
any information as to the country, but I have no reason to doubt his
statements.

After my return to Clifton, I was kept busy preparing for lambing. This
did no